June 13, 2005

Iranian women on the march

They shouted "down with dictatorship!" and "shame on you!" in response to the aggressive tactics of police, who tried to prevent protesters reaching the demonstration yesterday.

"I have come to defend my rights because these people have always oppressed us," said Farangis Rafati, holding up a Kurdish women's group banner. "All the candidates in the election say the same things. They're the same people. It makes no difference if we vote because they will have someone elected among themselves."

As the protest ended, another began on the other side of the street calling for a boycott of the election, to be contested by eight candidates who were approved by a clerical watchdog.

Some 89 women candidates, including several well-known conservatives, were barred because of their gender. Women have the same voting rights as Iranian men but suffer what is in effect discrimination in legal matters.

"These women don't care anymore. They have had it!" one man, voicing his support of the protestors, shouted at police. "Imagine being held back for so long - what's the worst they are going to do to them? Prison? They don't care," he said.

The female demonstrators fearlessly spoke out against the regime.

One carried a large sign lettered in English that read "Constitution NO, Women's Rights YES." Others held placards bearing male and female gender symbols connected with an equal sign. Leaders chanted Persian poems that celebrated the station of women in society through megaphones. Many recited slogans demanding the release of political prisoners and held signs with the names of the incarcerated.

Some women crossed their faces with their fists to depict voiceless women as a list of demands were read.

The mainly young protesters, many in their teens, defied the security forces' assaults and chanted slogans against the upcoming presidential elections, calling it a masquerade.
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In a reference to gender inequality in the theocratic state, protesters chanted, "Unequal law, inhuman justice", "human rights can only exist in a free Iran", and "Misogyny is the root of tyranny".

Security agents and paramilitary policemen were seen hitting women with batons. In some cases, angry women protesters retaliated and beat some of the security agents before being dragged to security forces' vans and driven away.

The protest was the first public display of dissent by women since the 1979 revolution, when the new regime enforced obligatory veiling. "We are women, we are the children of this land, but we have no rights," they chanted. More than 250 marched outside Tehran University, and about 200 others demonstrated two blocks away after hundreds of riot police swarmed in and barred them from joining the main protest.